Day: February 11, 2025

7:35 pm: HE will drive back to Ojai this evening following the Timothee Chalamet interview/tribute (8 pm to 10 pm). I’ve enjoyed a warm, nourishing, profoundly soothing six days in Santa Barbara — thanks to HE’s own Roger Durling for the gracious and generous hospitality!

11:20 pm update — HE to guest moderator Josh Brolin: “The Brolin-Chalamet show was the greatest SBIFF interview hang EVER…hilarious, honest, surreal, liberating.

“James Mangold called it ‘the Phil Donahue show’. I for one laughed and whooped my ass off. You were brilliant!! Your repeated jokes about Timothee’s green floral-print shirt were perfect, and when he left to take a leak…”that is art”…I almost fell out of my seat.

“In a way Mangold kind of brought everyone down with his par-for-the-course praisings. He was fine and eloquent, but you and Timmy were on a whole ‘nother level. You were on mescaline!”

Brolin replies to HE: “Jeffrey! So glad you had a nice time. I knew Timmy and I would [enjoy some] nice, real (if not quite mescaline-infused) banter. I was honored to do it.”

HE back to Brolin: “Not to mention Timmy lamenting the ticking of the clock at age 29 and the career pressure that comes with his being on the cusp of old guy-hood. Which will kick in, you remarked, when Timmy turns 31.’.

”This prompted you, of course, to joshingly imply resentment at this while announcing that your 57th birthday is imminent (actually today!…happy birthday!). Followed by Timmy and the entire Arlington audience singing the proverbial song…a truly joyful moment.

”The audience and I didn’t have a ‘nice’ time — we had a euphoric time. Last night will live in the SBIFF annals.

”I absolutely love that you sent your reply to my initial euphoric email at 4:10 am.

”Forgive me for not having not read ‘From Under The Truck’ yet. I meant to buy it after watching you talk about it on Joe Rogan.”

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“…and you used me to get Jack Reed to marry you.”

HE is preparing for a forthcoming podcast withh Sasha Stone about Warren Beatty‘s Reds. Immersing myself.

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Bunk, I tell you! Don’t fall for it!

Scowly-faced Kris Tapley is basically asking “if Anora is locked in for Best Picture, why on earth would Mikey Madison not win the Best Actress Oscar?”

HE answer: I’ve said this two or three times but it has to be drilled in. Demi Moore is apparently going to win because SAG and AMPAS members have all accepted the narrative voiced by Moore after winning a Best Comedy/Musical Actress Golden Globe award five weeks ago (i.e., January 5th).

“Thirty years ago, I had a producer tell me that I was a ‘popcorn actress,’ and at that time, I [took] that to mean that…I could do movies that were successful and made a lot of money, but that I couldn’t be acknowledged, and I bought in and I believed that,” Moore said. “That corroded me over time, to the point where I thought a few years ago that maybe this was it, maybe I was complete, maybe I had done what I was supposed to do.

“And [just] as I was at kind of a low point, I had this magical, bold, courageous, out-of-the-box, absolutely bonkers script come across my desk called The Substance. And the universe told me that ‘you’re not done.’”

For the sixth or seventh time, Moore’s narrative is dishonest. She was not forced into a popcorn box by mean old Hollywood executives. She walked right into that box of her own volition, and she totally reaped the spoils (mainstream fame, huge paychecks, flush lifestyle) until she aged out. And then she pivoted into a body horror flick just like Bette Davis and Joan Crawford pivoted into hag horror in the early ’60s.

In the ’80s and ’90s Moore went for big, attention-getting, high-paying roles in mainstream films, and she became rich and famous from this. She chose this path while the choosing was good.

I’ve never read or heard that Moore tried to prove her arthouse mettle by appearing in edgy Sundance films, and she never tried to be in a critically-approved, Cannes-worthy, outside-the-box feminist statement film, and certainly not in a body-horror film.

She only took the lead in The Substance when she calculated that she’d aged out (duhhh) and a role like this was her only likely shot at revitalizing her career.

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